Milgram Effect

Problem Scenario

This can be a useful study/experiment because, if we know how the human mind reacts, we can use it to our power with interrogation. It could also be used against us.

Broad Question

How do people react to commands?

Specific Question

Does the age of a person effect their willingness to comply with a command that has consequences?

Hypothesis

It is hypothesized that the age will effect the person's willingness to comply, decreasing as the
age increases, but varying occasionally.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable: Age of Participant

Dependent Variable: % Willing

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Questions
Order of Questions

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Coerce- Persuade (an unwilling person) to do something by using force or threats.
Qualitative Data- Data that cannot be recorded in numerals.
Quantitative Data- Data that can be recorded using numerals.

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General Plan

In order to begin, the participant and I must be in a room with minimal decorations/distractions. First, I will chose a question at random. Then, I will ask the participant the question. Their response will be monitored closely and recorded. In order to make the question harder for them, I will say things in order to contradict them and make them doubt themselves for both answers. After, I will release the participant.

Potential Problems And Solutions

• Participant will realize that there will not, in fact, be any consequences, and will react differently do to that.
• The reader of the question will mess up, effecting how the person sees the situation
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Safety Or Environmental Concerns

• This experiment could mess with the emotions of the participants, although I will be informing them at the end that it was not a real event.
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Experimental Design

Number Of Comparison Samples:

10-20
40-50

Number Of Observations In Each Sample:

10 people per age range, not necessarily one for each year (about)

When data will be collected:

Where will data be collected?:

Kennett Middle School

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
Question	7	Online	NA
People	10 per age group	My community	NA

Detailed Procedure

First you should gather your participants in one room. Next, you should take the participants one by one into a separate room to question them. Once in the room alone with the participant, you should choose a question randomly from the 7 questions you have. When you have the question, read it to the participant in a questioning tone. Once they have given you their answer, contradict them. Say, if they chose option B over option A, say things like: well why not this one? You're going to do? etc, etc. Then, record the result and age of participant, then release the participant. Repeat for each participant.

Diagram

Photo List

• Photo of each participant
• Photos of questions
• Photos of interrogation room
• Photos of each interrogation

Time Line

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Data Table

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Data Analysis

All Raw Data

Observations:
40-50 year olds took longer to reply.
1 40-50 year old thought through the decisions more thoroughly than others.
10-20 year olds either showed immediate answers, or went back and forth between answers.
1 10-20 year old came near tears.

Graphs

Photos

Results

My graph of results shows that 10-20 year olds have a higher rate of complying with the unruly circumstance. The 10-20 year olds chance of complying is almost a fourth of the chance that the 40-50 year olds have.

Conclusion

"It is hypothesized that the age will effect the person's willingness to comply, decreasing as the age increases, but varying sometimes." This hypothesis was almost completely right. The results did not vary, as hypothesized, but the willingness to comply did decrease as the age increased. For example, look at the graph. The willingness to comply was almost one fourth more for the younger group than the older group. So, one can conclude that as a person ages, their willingness to comply with these commands will decrease.

Discussion

Overall, the experiment did not show any patterns or trends. But, it did show that the independent and dependent variable have a very strong relationship. The dependent variable ( willingness to comply ) is completely related to the independent variable ( age of participant ) in the sense that as the independent increases, the dependent decreases. Through my research I was able to answer the question "Does the age of a person effect their willingness to comply with a question that has consequences?". My results were that, yes, age does affect the person's willingness to comply with the question. As the age increases, willingness decreases.Throughout the experiment, I experienced many difficulties. Once I started the project, I realized it was not going to be a simple task. "How could I graph someone response?" This kind of data is what is called qualitative data. This kind of data cannot be recorded using measurement or counting, is cannot have numerals put to it. So, for a long time I struggled with how to record my data. After research online and talking to my peers and teacher, I figured out a way to measure it ( percent willing to comply ). Also in the experiment, it took me a while to fiigure out how to graph this data too. But, in the end, persistence prevailed. If this experiment were to be redone, I would recommend having more test subjects. WIth my limited resources, I could only test a certain amount of people. I would recommend testing one-hundred subjects in each age group ( one-hundred people makes a better one-hundred percent than, say, 12 people. I would also recommend choosing subjects randomly from the society and not people the tester knows.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

By further researching this experiment society can get a better and broader understanding of how the human brain works under different situations. By looking at this, we have already seen that people who are younger tend to make more irrational and quick decisions ( which we have learned from previous experiments ) and that the older age group can make more rational decisions and time-consuming decisions. Being humans, we have not fully come to grasp how our brain works in every single way and function. We have only just begun to understand ourselves. So, this research, maybe not this specific one, and others can help psychologists understand our brain and provoke their brains for new experiments that will help us all understand ourselves.

Background Research

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The Milgram Effect gets it's name from the original experiment conducted by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1963. In the experiment, the participants were told that they were helping scientists look at how people learned and memorized, when there were rewards and punishments involved. When in reality, the scientists were actually testing how obedient to authority the average person was. The experiment went like this:
A stern and impassive biology professor in a lab technician’s coat (the “experimenter”) instructed the volunteer (the “teacher”) to deliver increasingly powerful electric shocks to a “learner” each time an incorrect answer was given to a question. The maximum shock administered would be a massive 450 volts. The “teacher,” in a separate room, could observe the “learner’s” reaction to the shock through a glass window.

However, the “learner” (or victim) was a plant, a professional actor, reacting with increasing feigned anguish to the increasingly intense imaginary shocks. Throughout the experiment, the “professor/experimenter” reassured the “teacher” that, despite the violent reactions, no lasting damage was being done. ("The Milgram Effect." The Milgram Effect. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013.)


My experiment takes the general plan of this experiment, and puts a different specific question to it. I also altered the procedure slightly. There have been many other cases in which this method has been tested again. For example, one experiment added peer pressure to the mix in a game show called "The Game Of Death". The point of this game show was to see how many people would follow out with orders to torture someone. Here is a research video about the game show by France24.

The original experiment and my experiment test the following theory:

The agentic state theory;"the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view themselves as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and they therefore no longer see themselves as responsible for their actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow" (Wikipedia contributors. "Milgram experiment." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.)
Milgram was researching the justifications of the acts by those in that Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Their defense was that they were just following orders of the authority. The Nuremberg War Criminal trials were basically, a lot of trials against the political military, and economic leadership people of Nazi Germany. They tried many people. The defendants were tested using the Rorschach test, the Thematic Apperception test, and an adaption of the Wechlser Adult Intelligence scale. With research of the trials, you can see where Milgram got his idea to perform the experiment from.

References

"Fake Torture TV 'game Show' Reveals Willingness to Obey." FRANCE 24. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013.

"The Milgram Effect." The Milgram Effect. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013.

Wikipedia contributors. "Milgram experiment." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.


Wikipedia contributors. "Nuremberg Trials." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 4 Feb. 2013. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.


Wikipedia contributors. "Nazi Germany." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.

Abstract

The Milgram experiment was originally conducted by a Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram. Milgram's original experiment worked with electricity, actors, and stress. But, seeing as I do not want to harm anyone or copy this genius, I have conducted my own version of his experiment. Both experiments have given people insight on how the human brain works. In my experiment, I asked random people within two age groups ( 10-20 and 40-50 years of age ) and recorded their response to a series of randomly read moral dilemma questions. I turned their responses into percents and eventually came out with the answer to my question: "Does age effect a person's willingness to comply with a command that has consequences?" After my research I found that, yes, age does effect the person's willingness to comply. Those who are older have a lesser percentage of complying with these commands.